To Squeak or Not to Squeak
by Auwdwee242
Summary: Twee's puffles go missing, along with many others' on the island. Operation: Puffle begins, and she goes through it with hateful thoughts. (Humanized, shipping implied.)
1. The Taking

It was a quiet morning on Club Penguin. It was early, the clock in the Snow Forts read just past 3:10 AM. Most of the island still slept, including Twee and Gary.

At least, they were.

Their EPF phones- Gary's on the nightstand, Twee's under her pillow- blasted loud beeps every second, indicating an incoming call. The couple immediately woke up, Twee having shouted some vulgar word, and Gary nearly knocking his glasses off the bedside table while reaching for his phone.

"Hello?" They answered in unison.

"Team Alpha," said the Director's disguised voice, "report to the Ski Village immediately! There is a code red!"

"Can we at least get _dressed_ first?" Twee asked quickly.

"Make it snappy," said the Director, then hung up on the both of them.

Gary and Twee had rushed out of bed to get in uniform, then teleported to the Ski Village as directed. The rest of Team Alpha, which Twee was the leader of, was already there. Jet Pack Guy, Dot, and Rookie stood waiting, all wearing coats and hiking shoes. Twee had put on her Alpha uniform, but her black hiking shoes instead of the pumps. Gary had just put on his normal outfit.

Putting her hair up in a messy bun, Twee asked, "So… what are we doing? What's the problem?"

"The Director just ordered us here. We have no idea yet. We assumed they were waiting for you two." Jet Pack Guy answered.

"Yeah," Rookie added, fixing his gloves, "I got called at 3:10! In the morning! How ridiculous is that!?"

"Rookie, we all got that call and it was only, like, eight minutes ago," Dot said, buttoning up her coat.

"Oh, yeah!" Rookie replied.

"Well, I believe we are supposed to head that way," Gary said, pointing toward a trail that lead into the wilderness behind the Ski Lodge, in which a new building was constructed past a bridge built over the river.

"Right," Team Alpha replied, and Twee lead the way to the building.

Once they went over the bridge, they all had to go through a scanner one at a time. The scanner beeped green for all of them, allowing them into the newly build Outpost. They went inside the building, to Rescue Headquarters.

Gary immediately sat down at a computer, as if it was his natural instinct. After a couple of seconds of typing, he brought up a stream of the Director.

"Good morning, Team Alpha."

"Good isn't the word I would use," Jet Pack Guy commented under his breath.

"Now's not the time for snarky remarks. We have a serious problem. Herbert has begun a plan we've dubbed 'Operation: Puffle.' He is kidnapping puffles around the island and using them to dig up coins. What he wants the coins for, we are still unsure. Our main concern is to get the puffles to safety. Other agents are scanning all the areas of the Wilderness at this moment. Jet Pack Guy," the Director said suddenly.

He stood up straight and stared at the screen, "Yes, Director?"

"Survey the area from above. Report back as soon as you can. Always have your earpiece on, and call in the second you see anything suspicious. Got it?"

"Aye-aye, captain," Jet said, saluting, then running out the door and taking off.

"Agent D, see how close you can get to any puffles with these 'brain boxes' on. See how they look and behave. If you can, try to take one off, and see how long the effects last. You also need to keep your earpiece on."

"On it, Director!" She exclaimed, teleporting to HQ with her phone.

"Rookie, I need you to talk to any civilians with missing puffles. Ask how many, what colors are missing, and what the names are. Keep your earpiece on as well."

"Alrighty!" Rookie left the Outpost and headed back to the Ski Village.

"Agent, can I talk to G for a moment?" the Director asked toward Twee.

"Uh, sure. I'll be outside," she said.

Twee left the Outpost, just in time to catch Rookie walking through the sensor and it going off, red lights flashing, sirens wailing. She ran to him, looking all around until she found a button that read "Reset in case of confusion." She smacked it, and the lights and sirens stopped. Rookie looked terrified.

"What just happened!?" He screamed, as agents who had come running stopped and went back to what they were doing.

"You're fine, Rookie. It just got confused. Go, now," she pushed him back through the sensor, and it beeped with a green light like normal.

Twee walked away from the sensors and put her white gloves on. She leaned against the wall of the Outpost, suddenly hearing Gary yell something she couldn't understand through the window. She figured she wasn't supposed to hear the conversation, so she walked away.

Gary came out just then and swung around the corner to get Twee.

He gently took her hand. "We need to go to your igloo really quick."

"Why?"

"Can we just go?"

"I guess," Twee shrugged and took out her phone, tapping on the igloo icon as Gary grabbed her arm and they appeared in her living room.

Unusually, her puffles were nowhere in sight. Well, none but her rainbow puffle, Prism, and her gold puffle, Odysseus.

"I think my puffles are out back. They like looking at the sunrise. I should tell them to come inside," she said aloud. She headed out the back door and called for her puffles, with no squeaking reply nor any puffles running toward her. All the way across the yard, she saw something on the fence. It looked like a piece of paper. She ran to it, and the first thing she saw was the large black paw stamp at the bottom of the paper.

She ran her shoulder into the fence to stop her from slamming her face into it and snatched the paper off the nail that was keeping it there. She read it, dropping to her knees and letting out a blood-curdling scream, balling up the paper and throwing it into the snow. She screamed again and buried her face into her hands, hot tears of anger flowing from her eyes. Gary came running out and he kneeled down next to her, picking up the note and reading it.

_Agent,_

_How do you like me now?_

_Herbert P. Bear, Esq._

Gary saw the paw print stamp at the bottom and shook his head, putting the crumpled note in his lab coat pocket. He wrapped his arms around Twee's shoulders and she cried on him.

Herbert had taken her puffles, and she was prepared to do anything to get them back safely.


	2. Beckoning Bouncer

Dot arrived back at the Outpost and went to the computer where the team had been talking to the Director a couple hours ago. The time was now 5:36 AM. Gary was at a table up the stairs examining a brain box that an agent named Huntara had found on the ground by the river. Twee was a few feet away, sitting in front of the puffle-shaped pot belly stove. A blue blanket was wrapped around her and she had a tissue in hand.

"Hey, are you guys okay?" She said, breaking the silence and startling the other two agents.

"Yes, my dear lady, we're fine. Physically, if that's what you meant," Gary remarked, pushing his glasses up and continuing to scrutinize the Herbertech device.

Twee burst out crying and wrapped the blanket around her tighter, sobbing into the wrinkled tissue.

"Holy mullet, Twee, what happened?" Dot asked worriedly.

"My puffles! My puffles are g-gone! He took them, kidnapped them!" She stuttered out, and then began another round of weeping.

"As you can see, she's very distraught," Gary commented, not looking up from the brain box.

Dot walked up the stairs to Twee and kneeled down to her, taking the blanket off.

"Twee, you listen to me. You are letting Herbert win by doing this. He's trying to make you want to give up, which is why you can't. Now, you're gonna get up, talk to the Director and save your puffles! Got it, ace?" Dot patted her on the back and jumped up, holding her arms out for Twee to do the same.

Twee was silent for a few moments before nodding.

"Yeah, yeah! I… I can't let Herbert win! I'm gonna fight, I'm gonna save my puffles, along with everyone else's!" She jumped up from the ground snatching the blanket from Dot and folding it, putting it back next to the wood pile and went down to the lower level of Rescue HQ, skipping over the steps and landing on her feet.

She grabbed a pen and paper from one of the desks and started scribbling a note.

_Bouncer  
Blast  
Flare  
Sphinx  
Flit  
Loop  
Zany  
Chill  
Chirp  
Pop_

These were the names of her puffles in the order the Director had sent a message saying they could save each color. At the top, she wrote "Twee's puffles" and she ran back up to the higher level and pinned the paper to the board behind Gary, where there was a map of the Wilderness and all the places they would probably find puffles.

The computer Team Alpha was at earlier started beeping. Gary dropped what he was doing and rushed down to it, typing a few things, clicking something and there on the screen appeared the Director once again.

"Hello, half of Team Alpha. Agent Twee, are you emotionally stable?" the Director asked.

"Affirmative, Director," Twee replied with a curt nod.

"Noted. Now, you know we need your help with an emergency. Puffles are turning up in the Wilderness under mind control and we need to rescue them. Agent G has a plan," the Director said, looking to Gary.

Gary cleared his throat, turning in the chair to face Dot and Twee and began, "Thank you for helping, Team Alpha. These 'brain-boxes' are forcing puffles to dig for coins and bring them to an unknown location. I'd call the tech impressive if it wasn't so nasty. I need the microchips from those brain-boxes. With them, I can invert the wavelength of the neural restraint network and…"

"Gary, stay focused," the Director said.

"Um, right. Just make sure you get a chip from each color of puffle. I'll work on tracing the mind control signal," he stated, turning back to the computer.

"Work together to save those puffles, agents. Good day," the Director disappeared from the screen and Dot and Twee looked at each other.

"I'll stay here. You go. Call in if you need help. Be careful," Dot said, pushing Twee out.

She went to a hole by the river where a blue puffle had jumped out of and back in moments before. She saw a large series of hills across the river and a small flock of puffles bouncing across them. There was no way she would catch any if she had to run those hills.

Then, she got an idea.

She went back to her igloo and grabbed a cushion off the sofa and her snowboard. Teleporting back to the Ski Village, she rushed into the Outpost where Gary, Dot, and now Jet Pack Guy were.

"Are there any heavy duty straps with clips around here?" She asked, looking around.

"There should be some over there," Gary said, pointing toward the equipment area.

"Why do you have all that stuff?" Jet Pack Guy asked, watching her go by.

"Because," Twee said, pulling three sets of straps from the hooks and putting them on her arm, "I need to do a bit of sledding."

She sandwiched the cushion between her back and the snowboard, which she wrapped one strap around and tightened it, clipping it at her stomach. She did another higher, at her chest and one at her waist. She now had a working back sled.

"Time to do some puffle roundup!" She said, mocking a country accent.

Running back out to the hill, she grabbed a net from a lone off-roader and she climbed to the top, just in time for five blue puffles to pass her, brain-boxes and all.

She recognized Bouncer, her blue puffle. The rage came back, and she jumped, falling back on her board and taking off.

The chase was long. Falling, sliding, flipping, landing, swiping, missing, jumping, swiping, catching. That's all it was. It was a game of tag, and she was It. Constantly. The chase ended as she swung the net once more and grabbed Bouncer and fell, sliding down one more hill. She took the brain-box off her and squeezed the puffle tightly, as the effect of the hypnotization wore off.

Bouncer squeaked happily and rubbed her face against Twee's, who laughed softly as tears ran down her face. She kissed the puffle, sitting up awkwardly and helping the puffles back to the Outpost.

Her phone rang, and she answered it as Gary, Dot, Jet, and Rookie walked up to her.

"Congratulations, Agent. You've saved the blue puffles. You'll be needing this head light tomorrow. Be resourceful, be remarkable, be ready."

The call dropped. Just like that. All the puffles except Bouncer were taken to the medic to be checked up.

"Good job, Twee. But aren't you cold?" Jet Pack Guy asked as Twee began undoing the clips.

"Nah, there's a lot of snow down my back but it's so numb by now I can't feel it," she said, the cushion, board, and straps falling to the ground.

"That was very ingenious, Twee. If you allow me, I can make something for you that works a little better. And I can make it keep snow out, as well," Gary said, going to her and putting a hand on her shoulder.

"Go right ahead, that would be great," Twee replied, stretching her back, popping it.

Dot winced at the sound. "Don't do that!"

Twee popped her knuckles. "Why not?"

Dot winced again, smacking her on the arm. "Because, the sound is terrible!"

"Don't care." Twee said, and then she popped her shoulders and upper back. Gary bent over and picked up her makeshift back sled materials and went up to the table with the disassembled brain box and began working on the better version.

Twee gasped suddenly, reaching into her pocket.

"Gary! I almost forgot, I have the microchip!" She held up a small SD card-like chip that had blue lights in it. She ran up and gave it to him, and he put it in his lab coat pocket.

She turned to the board behind him, grabbing a pen from a nearby table.

"One down, nine to go."

_TWEE'S PUFFLES_

_Blast  
Flare  
Sphinx  
Flit  
Loop  
Zany  
Chill  
Chirp  
Pop_


	3. Bringing Back Blast

Quiet in the Outpost. That's all there was. Gary and Twee were wrapped in a blanket together next to the stove. Dot was dozing off with her head on the desk next to Jet Pack Guy, who fell asleep leaning back in the chair. Rookie, who had returned hours ago and caught up with the events, was silently doodling in a corner.

The time was now 3:52 AM the next day, November 22nd. It had been more than 24 hours since the Operation began, and an agent came running in.

Agent Huntara was pink in the face from the cold outside, and she was bundled up tightly, holding papers in one hand and a bullhorn in the other.

"HEY GUYS! WAKE UP!" She shouted through the megaphone, immediately waking the team. Jet Pack Guy fell backwards in the chair and Rookie snapped the pencil he was holding.

"Aw, shucky darns!" Rookie shouted, as Jet Pack Guy stood, rubbing his head.

"Hunt, what was THAT for?" Twee said, stumbling down the steps to the agent. The others gathered around as well.

"'Tis time to wake up, agents! The time is 3:55 AM on November 22nd, and the red puffles need to be rescued! See you at the treehouses!" Huntara shouted, and with that, she was gone.

Sighing, the team got ready and headed to the treehouse set up. A hole similar to the one at the Outpost was there, but red puffles entered and exited this one.

"Now, Twee," Gary said, grabbing the remade version of her back sled, "you can't go uphill with this. You'll skid and stop, which will slow you down a considerable amount. Be careful," he finished, handing it to her. She hugged him and took it.

"Thanks Gary, I'll try. See you guys at the other side!" she said, pointing to the opposite end of the hills. She strapped herself to the Back Sled 3000- which is what the team had dubbed the invention- and picked her net up from Rookie who had been kind enough to remember and grab it before they left the Outpost. She ran to the top of the hill and jumped, landing on her back once again.

This landing was much softer than the last one, considering Gary and Dot had stuffed the velvet on one side of the Back Sled 3000 with the same stuff couch cushions had. She flipped and landed back on her feet before she started running up the first hill. She caught the red puffle and went down another hill.

This continued in a little less time than the previous chase had taken, which was maybe three hours. This chase took about two and a half.

The team was waiting for her at the end. They took the puffles, save for Blast.

"Blast, my baby! I missed you so much, oh my Mod!" she exclaimed, kissing the puffle repeatedly.

The red puffle squeaked and kissed her on the cheek.

Back at the Outpost, the team was sleeping again, save for Gary and Twee. Bouncer and Blast snored in a corner near the stove, Gary typed on a computer, and Twee walked to the upper level once again.

After she had saved the red puffles, it was about 6 AM. They had done some patrolling together, gone to the Pizza Parlor, examined the footprints, and done an overhead patrol as well. That killed a lot of time, and it was now 10 PM. She took her pen and marked through Blast's name on the list.

"Two down, eight still to save."

_TWEE'S PUFFLES_

_Flare  
Sphinx  
Flit  
Loop  
Zany  
Chill  
Chirp  
Pop_


End file.
